Weird Music Videos

Weird Music Videos

Music videos have the potential to be a form of experimental audio/visual flash fiction when in the right hands. Most however seem to focus on the performers rather than on trying to use the medium to tell a story. This is not always the case however. There have been some videos in recent times that have excelled at bringing strange narratives to the screen, often narratives that have little to do with the lyrical content of the songs themselves. Which I don’t really see as being a problem.

Two notable examples of weird flash fiction in music videos have come from Iceland. Two very different bands and two very different videos.

The song Fjara by the post-metal band Sólstafir(Icelandic for crepuscular rays) is a heart wrenching scream of betrayal. The video however takes a different tack as it follows a young woman’s journey across the stark Icelandic landscape pulling behind her a coffin. Presumably she is attempting to fulfil a promise to the deceased. Along the way she is beset by scum encrusted ghouls lurking in the sand of the beach, by a cosmic spirit that torments her rest when she takes a break from her gruelling journey. All the while she is, unbeknown to her, accompanied by the spirit of the person in the casket. Eventually the spirit is able to manifest and there is a moment of seeming forgivness as it embraces her and helps her finish her quest.

This is the furthest I will go.
Never the same again.
The vile path calling me,
the day I ran from life again.

If I win this one time,
it will still be the end of me.
My belief that nothing ends well.
This is the end for me.

Day and night heart was uneased.
Broken will frozen smile.
Riding on, heart pumping tears.
Day and night I walk alone.

Bones rotting in the earth,
like your secrets
that you long kept from me.
But blood weighs more than silence.

Broken words, shards in your mouth,
cut deeper than any wound.
Broken vows will never be the same.
Lies like the viper’s bite.

Of Monsters and Men are a completely different band to Sólstafir. Where Sólstafir are post-metal, having emerged from the underground black metal scene, Of Monsters and Men are cheery folk-pop/indie music. The video to this song, King & Lionheart, is absolutely heartbreaking weird science fiction. Following two royal siblings captured by invading barbarian alien hordes. The siblings, with the help of strange spectral animal spirits, escape from captivity and race to one another across a beautifully rendered alien landscape. The ending is heartbreaking, I’ll not spoil it, and I demand a sequel. 😦 Again, the video and its narrative have very little to do with the song’s lyrics.

King & Lionheart

Taking over this town they should worry,
But these problems aside I think I taught you well.
That we won’t run, and we won’t run, and we won’t run.
That we won’t run, and we won’t run, and we won’t run.

And in the winter night sky ships are sailing,
Looking down on these bright blue city lights.
And they won’t wait, and they won’t wait, and they won’t wait.
We’re here to stay, we’re here to stay, we’re here to stay.

Howling ghosts – they reappear
In mountains that are stacked with fear
But you’re a king and I’m a lionheart.
A lionheart.

His crown lit up the way as we moved slowly
Past the wondering eyes of the ones that were left behind.
Though far away, though far away, though far away
We’re still the same, we’re still the same, we’re still the same.

Howling ghosts – they reappear
In mountains that are stacked with fear
But you’re a king and I’m a lionheart.
And in the sea that’s painted black,
Creatures lurk below the deck
But you’re a king and I’m a lionheart.

And as the world comes to an end
I’ll be here to hold your hand
‘Cause you’re my king and I’m your lionheart.
A lionheart. [8x]

Howling ghosts – they reappear
In mountains that are stacked with fear
But you’re a king and I’m a lionheart.
And in the sea that’s painted black,
Creatures lurk below the deck
But you’re a king and I’m a lionheart.
A lionheart. [8x]

I do really love both of those videos. Hopefully we will see more interesting use of the music video format in future. Maybe there is already loads of coll interesting stuff out there and I’ve just not discovered it yet. I do hope so. 🙂

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